Ecoutez

In October 2010, representatives from 193 countries that have signed the Convention on Biological Diversity gathered in Nagoya, Japan, to decide on the future fate of all life on earth. This was a highlight of the International Year of Biodiversity and a true milestone for nature conservation. We look into some of the most important issues that were discussed and explain what exactly happened in Nagoya.

Throughout the two weeks of the conference in Nagoya, delegates were discussing a new plan to reduce the current pressures on the planet’s biodiversity and take urgent action to save and restore nature. …

For the past eight years, parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity have unsuccessfully tried to adopt a protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) – an agreement that would secure fair, globally-regulated access to the earth’s genetic diversity and equitable sharing of the benefits it offers us. …

During the biodiversity summit in Nagoya, governments agreed on the so-called Strategic Plan, setting 20 targets to respond to the growing threats to the natural world. But no matter how hard we try to restore and conserve nature, little progress will be made without sufficient funding. …

One of the 20 'targets' under discussion in Nagoya was a target calling for the prevention of the extinction and decline of known threatened species and improvement in their conservation status by 2020. …

Delegates in Nagoya addressed the question of protected areas from a variety of angles: the percentage of terrestrial and marine areas that should be protected, the financial implications of these efforts, current threats to protected areas and their role in helping us adapt to climate change were just some of them. …

In Nagoya, governments made a big and important step forward in addressing the greatest individual threat to biodiversity: the loss and degradation of habitats, such as forests, wetlands or coral reefs, which are natural homes to a variety of plants, animals and other types of organisms. …